ComiXology update stops you from buying comics in the App Store

ComiXology has long been one of my favorite iOS apps, but I’m not a big fan of the latest update, which makes it impossible to purchase comics from within the app.

For the longest time, ComiXology was the easiest and best way to buy comics on a mobile device. Now the app has become solely a comic book reader: You must visit ComiXology’s website to buy new issues. You can still browse comics in the app, and download free ones, but the actual payment part must be done elsewhere.

Why has ComiXology gone all supervillain on us?

It’s because the App Store demands 30 percent of all in-app purchases and subscriptions. By handling the sales through its website, ComiXology doesn’t have to pay Apple a cut of its profits.

I like to think there were robot drones involved, a bit like that flying monkeys scene from Wizard of Oz.

Ben Klaiber

Did you see Gerry Conway’s piece on this move by Amazon?The irony of Amazon’s ebook case defenders handing a pass to them taking total domination of the digital comic market in one swoop isn’t lost on me.

“Additionally, we also know that Amazon gets a 30% cut on sales of most e-books with remaining 70% going to the publisher”

Don’t let facts get in the way of your anti-Apple bias now…

chas_m

Not really. I take it you have no understanding of how retail works. Running iTunes costs money, handling the the cc, being responsible for the transaction, and providing a convenient marketplace costs money. It cost Comixolgy to build their own store, and it costs Google Play (which also charges 30 percent) to built its own store.

Comixology has a perfect right not to accept the deal, but that doesn’t make the deal “extortion.” In both the case of Apple and Google, the 30 percent is a bit (not a lot, but a bit) higher than they need to actually run the infrastructure, but they use most of the “excess” to allow free apps to be on the store at no cost (beyond the $99/year developer fee) to the developer providing the free app. IOW, most of the “profit” from that 30 percent subsidizes apps that *cost* the App Store (or Play Store) money.

The DC and Marvel apps don’t appear to have a problem with paying Apple 30 percent. It strikes me as a fair cut for what they’re providing in the way of access and service, and subsidizes other things I want.

You may want to talk to the manager of your local grocery store about the cost of manufacture versus distribution, marketing, store infrastructure and yes, profit, and how that affects the price you pay for groceries. Hint: this is how the rest of the world works, only the markups can be (and generally are) way, way higher than 30 percent in most fields.

Hardy Thomas

Indeed.. but still if you see ComiXology was the highest grossing non game app on the store.. Which means the model still worked wonders for them.

Ben Klaiber

Amazon takes 30%. So does Google.

There’s nothing extortionist about paying the company that almost single handedly created the whole digital tablet platform that brought the comics industry back from the brink the same cut publishers used to pay distributers like Diamond to reach comic stores.

gregorvogt

Someone found the perfect words for this: The apps’s not pinin’! The apps’s passed on! This app is no more! it has ceased to be! The apps’s expired and gone to meet its maker! The apps’s a stiff! Bereft of life, it rests in peace! If you hadn’t nailed it to the perch it’d be pushing up the daisies! Its metabolic processes are now ‘istory! It’s off the twig! it’s kicked the bucket, it’s shuffled off ‘ts mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin’ choir invisible!! THIS IS AN EX-APP!

JediRebelScum

If DC would go the route that Marvel did with their own app, I could care less about this.

But since that is not the case, and since I use iTunes credit to buy my comics, guess my days of comic reading are done. I don’t like Amazon, I didn’t like this deal, I don’t like the idea that no one has made something else like ComiXology, and now IOS users suffer.

My days of comics are done.

JohnF_23

what did Marvel do to their app? i don’t see any difference between these two :-S

JediRebelScum

They did nothing. What DC should do is an app like Marvel Unlimited and skip ComiXology.

Am I missing how its any more difficult to purchase comics through their website than the app? Its not like you can’t login to their site on your phone just as easily as the app; I imagine they’ll save your credit card info or use paypal? Seems like a smart move on Amazon to cut out the 30% apple fee.

JediRebelScum

You are missing one thing. Many people use iTunes credit to make purchases. Not everyone wants to have their credit card on the net.Plus it is more steps now for buying, and making sure everything syncs. It’s a pain.